HOUSE prices are booming, now they are slumping. Is there a housing market bubble? Record prices are being paid, auction clearance rates are rocketing or plummeting, buyers losing out, sellers are desperate … these are all terms we are familiar with in the highs and lows of our property market.

Now I do empathise, especially if you are a struggling first homebuyer feeling priced out, or a hard working family just wanting a decent home that you can actually afford - and here I am talking about the great Australian dream of home ownership still being the cornerstone of our modern economy.

Clearly this is still the case, according to research by CoreLogic and published this month in a document titled Housing Market and Economic Update - February 2016.

The headline statistics are simply the fact that the money invested in residential real estate across Australia doesn’t just surpass its nearest competitor, it wallops it by nearly three times. Our wealth in housing equated to an eye watering figure of $6.4 trillion, the runner up being superannuation at $2.3 trillion, followed by Australian listed stocks at $1.6 trillion and finally commercial real estate at $0.7 trillion.

Just in case you weren’t sure, I had to check too: one trillion is equal to one million, million. Therefore residential real estate wealth in good old fashioned numbers is equal to $6,400,000,000,000.

Home ownership is still the great Australian dream according to Andrew Winter. Illustration: Terry Pontikos.Source:News Corp Australia

This considerable number - and the fact it is so much bigger than all other major forms of wealth - almost justifies our nation’s fascination with real estate. That is no consolation for those who don’t own property but perhaps it does affirm why we are a nation obsessed.

A further factor that this compelling research brings to light is how a typical household’s individual wealth is actually composed. The breakdown shows 52.1 per cent of a household’s wealth is the equity in their home; now that could be any amount large or small. Superannuation again is the next major player at 21 per cent, which probably comes as no surprise.

What I did find very revealing in this section of the research relates to the composition of household wealth in 2015. Just over 50 per cent of the wealth is in residential real estate. Going back 10 years to 2005, that figure has hardly changed and is still at around 50 per cent. All the way back 25 years ago in 1990, it is actually quite surprising that the percentage figure seems to remain at a constant 50 per cent.

Over that last quarter of a century, many of you will recall we’ve seen incredible highs and lows, booms and busts, house prices fluctuating all over the place and times of both doom and elation for sellers and buyers. Yet across all that volatility, all those market conditions and external influences, the share of household wealth in our homes has stayed a constant.

The value of residential property in Australia is a mind boggling $6.5 trillion.Source:News Corp Australia

This has certainly illustrated nothing particularly new other than the old adage “our home is our castle” is perhaps just as true today as it was over many, many decades.

In my opinion, it is that fundamental factor which protects house values in a country like Australia. I am sure there will be another far more formally educated expert who will argue against this point and dispense words of pending doom. But modern history has shown us that while the humble Aussie home, unit or townhouse may fluctuate in value - and yes, there are periods of lows - the periods of gain allow recovery periods to repair any losses and may even turn a profit, given sufficient time and the homeowner’s patience.

If housing and property ownership is not for you - and it isn’t for everyone - I apologise on behalf of homeowners across the land, but perhaps the numbers explain why the obsession continues.